Since erupting onto the scene little over a year ago, Midjourney has utterly captivated creative and tech circles with its uncanny AI art generation capabilities.
Over 4.5 million YouTube viewers have flocked to tutorials demystifying this futuristic tool. 2023 will bring an even wider mainstream embrace of Midjourney and similar AI art platforms as people across industries grasp the potential.
But to tap into these bleeding edge creative algorithms rather than just observe from afar, you need access. This comprehensive guide will cover getting set up on Midjourney, maximizing the platform features, and even monetizing the works it produces.
Why Midjourney‘s Viral Rise Signals an AI Art Revolution
It pays to understand why generative AI like Midjourney has struck such a resounding chord before diving into usage tips.
Once witnessing what these algorithms are capable of, the immense hype makes sense. Midjourney isn‘t just upgrading workflows, but almost eliminating creative constraints altogether for mediums like digital illustration, concept art, logo design, and more.
Some experts compare it not just to seminal creative software milestones like Photoshop, but epoch-defining artistic innovations like the camera or printing press. Believers and critics alike see this technology permanently changing the relationship between art and artist.
And based on adoption growth, that paradigm shift is accelerating…
Midjourney‘s Meteoric Growth Trajectory
While始 still formally beta software, some Midjourney growth metrics include:
- 2 million Discord server members at start of 2023, doubling since late 2022
- Over $300 million funding at a multibillion dollar valuation
- Processing over 100 million individual images to date
- Maintains strict invite scarcity to control pace amidst viral attention
For digital artists like Pedro Duarte who shared his amazement via Behance, these numbers validate Midjourney‘s prowess:
"What used to take weeks or months of study, practice and hard work – MidJourney can just generate instantly with a text prompt. As an artist, I find this thrilling rather than threatening. The borders of creativity are expanding and it‘s up to us to explore them."
Clever creators are catching on fast. But casual users are just as hungry to unlock Midjourney‘s magic for their own purposes.
This guide will make getting started much more approachable whether you‘re a pro designer or hobbyist daydreamer.
Step 1: Joining the Midjourney Discord Server
Like many web-fueled movements, Midjourney‘s true home exists on Discord. The official Midjourney server hosts an active community of over 2 million users chatting, collaborating, and continually amazed by AI art results.
Think of it like the watercooler hub for discussing this shared obsession. To install the app if new to Discord, consult this desktop/mobile walkthrough.
With app running, click the invite link above and select your login method when prompted. You‘ll land on the Midjourney server homepage. But don‘t start firing off prompt requests or spamming memes quite yet…
…Because while our goal lies in AI art generation, this server offers tools to manage every stage of the creative process. Best we thoroughly explore the landscape rather than fumble around blind.
Step 2: Navigating Midjourney‘s Robust Discord Channels
Initially, the sprawling and messy communality of Discord servers triggers flashbacks to early 2000s vBulletin forums and PHPBB boards.
But behind the UI clutter rests a remarkably robust, flexible platform supporting focused interest groups. Once acquainted, Discord‘s appeal becomes obvious for communities like Midjourney.
Peruse the left sidebar channel listing on the Midjourney server:
Options sort into common themes like:
- Rules: Code of conduct and guidelines
- Updates: Official Midjourney release notes
- Support: Troubleshooting help
- Showcase: Users sharing best creations
- Resources: Image repositories and prompt lists
- Workspace: Collaboration channels
- Off-Topic: Chatting and hanging out
This enables segmenting conversations and building a tokenized economy around contributions like prized prompts or technical support.
For now, focus on the #newbies-* numbered channels highlighted green above. They provide guided frolicking fields for Midjourney first-timers.
Step 3: Entering Your First Midjourney Prompt
After joining #newbies and reviewing examples, you‘ll grasp the basic syntax for submitting your own prompt.
The structure looks like:
/imagine a portal leading to a futuristic alien world, cinematic vivid colors, detailed and sharp focus, unreal engineBreaking it down:
/imaginetells Midjourney you‘re prompting image generation- Descriptors detail the desired scene and styles
- Multiple visual traits build complexity and aesthetic direction
Midjourney interprets these details provided in the 300 or so characters allowed, generating images in response.
After hitting Enter, Midjourney‘s processing status appears while creation completes. Brace for awe as your screen fills with algorithmic artwork!
Now tweak those descriptors and let imagination guide your prompts. The AI astounds at manifesting incredibly nuanced visions.
Step 4: Maximizing Free Prompt Allowance Before Subscribing
That first ultra-shareable portal vista hooking social feeds? It unfortunately counts against a finite creation allowance:
Each Midjourney user receives 25 free images. After burning through those, continued generation requires a paid subscription starting around $10 monthly.
With so few shots at triggering Midjourney magic gratis, make them count!
Optimizing Prompts for Impact and Appeal
Carefully craft prompts for maximum wow-factor and intrigue before losing freebie status. Consider what would captivate those 25 Instagram friends awaiting alien portals glimpses or a viral Reddit post.
Prompt formulas to inspire next-level shares:
- Mash unexpected themes like
astronauts playing jazz, matte painting - Contrast photorealism with surrealism like
a swan paddling through the starry cosmos, photograph - Embed internet meme Easter Eggs.
Success Kid petting Grumpy Cat, oil painting - Go super specific.
An orangutan in a Sherlock Holmes costume solving math equations on a whiteboard, Pixar animation
Prompting pro tip: Save any outstanding images along with their descriptive keys for easy replication or iterations later in your paid subscription.
Which brings us to…
Understanding Midjourney Subscription Options
Once exceeding the 25 prompt designated trial limit, creating demands cold hard coin. But Midjourney‘s pricing stays reasonable for continued access considering the visual magic unlocked.
Subscription tiers include:
- $10 per month – 200 available monthly prompt generations
- $30 per month – Unlimited generations
- Custom corporate plans for teams and organizations
Output potential drastically multiplies even on a base subscription. With 200 generations, adapting ideas across multiple variations can easily fill a gallery show (or snag another 20k Instagram fans).
And with every personal plan, consider cost not just access fee but investment supporting better AI development benefiting all.
Now to leverage that newly-unlocked unlimited creative allowance to its fullest…
Step 5: Experimenting with Upscaling, Variations and Animations
At this point having nailed down prompting for maximum impact potential, you likely have a few images looking primed for internet stardom. But rather than rushing straight to "Add to Cart" print orders on RedBubble, first enhance them utilizing Midjourney‘s effects tools.
Any selected image can request an upscaled higher resolution version for crisper quality. This supersamples and enlarges while preserving fidelity, great for detailed closeups.
The platform also generates variations on images, cycling styles and tampering details like lighting, hues, saturation etc for dramatic or subtle effect.
And for truly elevating content potential, Midjourney images animate! Try prompts like:
An astronaut planting flowers on Mars, cinematic 4K animation, 30 seconds long
Building up galleries around a theme through upscaling, variations and animation keeps excitation and engagement high for platforms like Instagram thirsting for such.
Step 6: Advanced Image Post-Processing and Editing
At this point having tapped Midjourney‘s raw firehose of AI generation powers unleashed through a paid subscription, your creative spirit likely craves more gravity defiance.
What if instead of just interacting with images as-is, we could manually perfect, edit, or combine Midjourney‘s works? Welcome to hybrid workflows integrating automated generativity with human ingenuity and restraint.
Midjourney makes accessing, altering and authoring over its images easy via exportability. Right click any image and "Save As" just like typical visual assets. These download locally as common formats like .JPG, .PNG or .MP4.
From there, professional creative software like Adobe Photoshop adds limitless refinement potential. Try compositing AI artworks into new collages, applying graphical filters and textures, or masking elements.
Not artistically adept? Even basic cropping and touch-up through mobile apps can polish Midjourney pieces to greater glory.
This hybrid path blends AI numeric processing power with the subjective human touch for results greater than the sum of their parts. The output potential feels exponentially expansive.
Step 7: Reviewing Licensing Rules Around Commercial Use
At this exciting junction with captivating AI artworks in hand, intended for wide release across galleries and storefronts, the business-minded must pause for one nagging question:
Can these algorithmically-generated works be legally sold or incorporated into monetizable projects?
Like most aspects around emerging tech, regulation lags behind innovation. But fortunately in Midjourney‘s case, the commercial rules appear permissive pending a paid subscription.
According to Midjourney‘s Terms of Service:
- Free tier users retain limited rights to noncommercial distribution only without reselling ability
- Those rights manifest as a Creative Commons CC BY-NC 4.0 license
- Paid subscribers enjoy full commercial rights over anything generated using their account assets and access
This meansOffset can comfortably leverage unique works as:
- Graphics on commercial sites or packaging
- Merchandise like phone cases to be resold
- As incorporated into client deliverables
- Really any purpose respecting trademarks and IP of referenced elements
With this commercial clearance, only our imagination limits business applications. Just ensure branding stays aligned with audience expectations.
For even greater pending peace of mind around originality, develop branding based on wholly unique imaginary work generated exclusively through Midjourney without any prior real-world visual equivalent. Effort invested in elaborate descriptive prompts pays dividends regarding rights.
Alternative Generative AI Services Compared
While clearly excelling at manifesting stunning speculative and stylized scenes, Midjourney does have its aesthetic limitations depending on use case. Dall-E Mini, Stable Diffusion, and other emerging contenders may better suit certain needs.
Midjourney Strengths
- Intricate, refined illustrations and matte paintings
- Stylized character art
- Surreal, fantastical concepts
- Flexible art directions
Weaknesses
- Photo-realism detail
- Logo design constraints
- Limited fine art prowess
So while commanding hype as the trendiest AI art option, even Midjourney can‘t excel equally across all genres…yet.
For pen-and-ink whimsy, it dominates over platforms better geared for technical specifications illustration like Anthropic‘s Claude. Advertising design needs may be better met through emerging ante-upstarts like Alloy.
The key becomes matching desired visual style and purpose to the optimal generative AI engine.
Closing Thoughts on Midjourney Pioneering an AI Art Revolution
As increasing processing power unlocks new abilities for algorithms to manifest multi-layered imagery from thin air, we inch closer to fully replicating then transcending human visual capacities.
What once required studied practice over months of dedication just to approximate a scene held internally can now digitally take form within seconds based on brief typed description alone.
While Midjourney marks a before/after moment for democratizing artistic potential through AI, we‘re merely stepping into this frontier. Expect more mainstream creative applications for these generative tools as demand drives refinement.
But rather than trembling with dread or scoffing in denial, we should welcome this coming era of human/AI collaboration in visual arts. The true gift lies less in pure authorial abilities usurped by silicon, but in the creative limitations and constraints dissolving thanks to computing‘s untapped reservoirs.
Why grumble about easing tedious manual labor when we can joyfully bound unhindered into more wildly imaginative spaces thanks to these newfound tools? Forget tromping through mud when there’s a Ferrari parked nearby waiting.
Midjourney hands each of us the keys to unlock and navigate that exhilarating new terrain of creative possibility. Now gas up, buckle in, and see how far your imagination can yet be taken on this revolutionary ride made possible by AI!
